Kuwait's acting premier and foreign minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, on Monday welcomed calls to hold an Arab summit to close ranks in the face of bloodshed in the Palestinian territories.

"Kuwait has sent to the Arab League its consent to participate in any Arab summit. Kuwait is ready to attend any summit that aims at unifying Arab ranks and achieving Arab solidarity," Sheikh Sabah told newspaper editors.

Presidents Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Bashar al-Assad of Syria called earlier Monday for an urgent Arab summit to confront the deadly Israeli-Palestinian clashes.

Only one Arab summit has been held since the 1991 Gulf War, which followed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait that caused a rift in the Arab world. Iraq was not invited to the meeting of heads of state hosted by Cairo in 1996 -- KUWAIT(AFP)